Clear sky and light wind. I saw my first air race. The pylons were on barges set about 200 yards away from Greens restaurant at Fort Mason. The planes were single engine, which I can identify with as I fly them. They were one passenger, high powered, specialized for aerobatics and racing over a tiny course. A plume of colored vapor trailed behind each of them.
A big crowd in the Marina and anywhere with a vista of the Bay. I could move around like a bumble bee, with my motorcycle in the frozen auto traffic jam.
Everyone around me was excited and so was I. I know I had a different feeling. It was the barrel rolls, inside loops, inverted flight, slipping turns and worst of all the hammerhead stalls that made my stomach approach the vomit level. I’ve done everyone of these maneuvers in my youth and I got sick then. I still have to do stalls about once a year, usually quite modest ones, but they still unnerve me.
An airplane stalls when the air passing over the wings is going slower than the airplane requires to remain in the air. The airplane falls. A stall can occur when climbing, descending or in any position. Most often when climbing. A hammerhead stall is at the top of a steep climb. The plane just falls. It can be tail first, as many planes did today, or sideways or nose first. If the plane is high enough and balanced properly, the weight of the engine will have it moving nose first toward the ground (the bay) and it will gain enough airspeed over the wings to fly and regain control. But the feeling is always sickening.